Life is strange in the year 2024. One Donald J. Trump, a defendant in a criminal case involving falsification of business records will be stuck in Room 1530 of the criminal courthouse in Lower Manhattan for most of the spring. That same individual is the Republican party’s nominee for our nation’s highest office. Once you can hold two opposing thoughts in your mind, that a criminal defendant can actually be on the ballot to run this country, then you have a full picture of how our politics have gone completely into the toilet. This is not even remotely normal.
The net effect of this scenario is that Trump will be in court four days a week and have Wednesdays and weekends off to campaign. That will also be a first. Here’s what it could look like.
Under a New York law relating to criminal procedures, “a defendant must be personally present during the trial.” There’s an exception if Trump’s lawyers make a formal request to the judge, but even then the Manhattan DA is in a position to object.
I personally would like to see how that goes. “Your honor, my client is too busy explaining to the country how it can only save itself by voting for him. He needs to be out there on the campaign trial while we examine the facts and laws and determine if he should go to the slammer for one to four years.”
Ironically, Trump’s only other option for escape is to act like an indignant toddler—and keep up the courtroom antics he displayed during two recent trials at government buildings just a few blocks away. In those other cases, Trump would angrily grumble about his feelings that the proceedings were unfair and, in one instance, even ignored a federal judge’s warnings to stop discussing inappropriate matters in front of the jury.
At his three-month civil bank fraud trial in state court last fall, Justice Arthur F. Engoron had to reprimand Trump for his unruly behavior. And at the journalist E. Jean Carroll’s rape defamation trial against the former president in January, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan had to sternly lecture Trump to shut his mouth—at one point threatening to eject him from the courtroom.
New York law dictates that “a defendant who conducts himself in so disorderly and disruptive a manner that his trial cannot be carried on with him in the courtroom may be removed” if he keeps it up after ignoring a warning from the judge.
That means Trump has the perverse incentive to act out in court, because it could get him right back on the campaign trail—that is, if he manages to anger Justice Merchan enough to warrant removal but not a temporary trip to the slammer.
This may be how he plays it. Or, more likely, the judge will know that that’s how he’s going to play it and let him make a total ass of himself. This could provide a lot of entertainment value. And perhaps that’s what Trump wants. You know it’s going to be a circus, you just don’t know exactly how.
In the aftermath of the Daniels case, Trump will likely start the summer with a short break from courtrooms and be able to hit the road. But that path could look markedly different depending on the outcome of this first criminal trial.
If he’s acquitted in New York, he’ll have perhaps a few weeks before starting a federal trial in Washington, D.C. for election interference or one in Florida for hoarding documents at Mar-a-Lago. That is, if the Supreme Court doesn’t eviscerate the cases first.
But if New York jurors find him guilty, he might only have a short time before getting sentenced to imprisonment—taking him off the campaign trail entirely.
Again, it’s impossible to predict what this is going to look like because nothing in our history has ever prepared us for anything like this. How do you have an incumbent president campaigning against a former president — who he already beat once — who is a defendant in a criminal trial, not to mention headed for other criminal trials? We’ve all pondered it academically, but now we’re going to see how it actually plays out. Joe Biden has no lack of attack ad fodder, it’s just a question of how he uses it.
What I know will happen is Trump venting his spleen on the campaign trial, playing the martyr, and then I wonder if gag orders aren’t going to be discussed. Again.
This is so totally out of control but the GOP is totally on board for it. And here’s another thought: it might be a great time for Trump to reveal his VP candidate right now so that that person can go be on the campaign trail for him. You know why? Because it’s going to be interesting to watch some other Republican self-immolate defending the indefensible.
Unless I’m mistaken in at least some jurisdictions a criminal defendant(s) that disrupts proceedings to the point of being removed from the actual courtroom is taken to a nearby room and watches/hears remotely via CCTV. Technology is now such that a defendant can even have direct communication with a lawyer at the defense table. Think of a football coach sending in plays to a quarterback on a secure headset. Now THAT would be something. Trump getting his fat ass kicked out of the courtroom but still being required to be present, in a fashion. His nightly meltdowns on social media would be spectacular.
Presumably, it would have to be a padded room…with no ketchup in sight.
locked room, I presume?
He could also be found guilty of contempt. And be sent to far less sumptuous housing than Mar-a- Lado for the duration. I would love to see that happen.
“New York law dictates that “a defendant who conducts himself in so disorderly and disruptive a manner that his trial cannot be carried on with him in the courtroom may be removed” if he keeps it up after ignoring a warning from the judge.”
And who is then held in custody, not released into the world, and then, as Gillian states, there are quickly decided and adjudicated contempt charges, inevitable at this point, (or at least, for anyone else they would be – how long do we keep up with this charade that he’s somehow ‘special.?)